Trademarks and Gameart

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Hello unity community! First-time poster here,

First off let me thank you for allowing me to lurk around and have 90% of my Unity questions answered. I however, cannot find a solid answer to my current question anywhere the internet.

I am currently making a game and said game has different spheres, anywhere from tennis balls, golf balls, disco balls, etc. I was wondering if I could legally add a few iconic and well know balls from pop-culture.

For example could I add the seven dragon balls as seen in DragonBall Z? Since its basically a shiny orange ball with 1-7 stars on it. I obviously wouldn't directly call it a Dragon Ball. I'm just curious if an orange ball with red stars could possibly get me sued.

A more complex example would be the Toy Story Ball

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Answer by FortisVenaliter · May 19, 2016 at 05:36 PM

The most prudent answer I can give you is this: You do not want programmers giving you legal advice. Even if we said it was okay, would you really want to take that to court as your reasoning?

The short answer is: It's never legal to use others' intellectual property without express written permission, except in very narrow circumstances, which change from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

The best answer is: Hire an IP lawyer and ask them.

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tanoshimi · May 19, 2016 at 06:42 PM 0

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Very sage advice :)

Diabolickal · May 19, 2016 at 07:00 PM 0

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I understand that. I was just wondering if certain things are generic enough to be unable to be trademarked.

FortisVenaliter Diabolickal · May 19, 2016 at 07:14 PM 0

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Yes, some things are. But you need a lawyer to tell you which are which.

Trademarks and Gameart

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